Currently Browsing: Entertainment / Features / Movie Reviews / Opinion / Top Stories
Race to Reviews
Photo Credit: Rachel Fox
.
Written by Alexander Most, Anna Luke, and Lindsey Sepulveda
The Race to Nowhere, a documentary film that examines the pressures put on youth, was shown at the Menlo-Atherton PAC last Tuesday. The movie tells the story of young students who have been pushed passed their breaking point and the challenges that face educators and parents because of the competitive atmosphere. Three members of our staff give their feedback:
The Alexander Most Perspective
Had you been at the showing of Race To Nowhere, you would have noticed one predominate fact about the crowd that had gathered to watch: they were all middle aged mothers. Outside of the PAC lay an ocean of parents coming to hear about how their children were overworked -even the news reporter who showed up to report on the film was a middle aged woman.
It was this composition of the crowd that helped define the film. Race To Nowhere is a documentary about parent’s growing concern for their children’s education, presenting issues such as childhood depression, excessive and potentially useless amounts of homework, teaching to the test and neglecting to teach to learn. These issues are presented in conjunction with how the race to be in the top their students going to the top tier schools is crippling students with absurd and expanding expectations.
The film’s maker, Vicki Abeles, was inspired by the overstressing of her own children and growing medical problems stemming from this stress, and a local suicide of a 13 year old girl because on stress at school. She attempts to reveal the deep-seated issues in our school system that hurt students and force students into habits such as cheating and stimulant drug use. Essentially, she hopes to expose “the dark side of America’s achievement culture”.
Before actual commentary on the message, a quick comment on the production. This film was excellently produced; everything from the introduction screen to end credits looked beautiful. Interviews and tapes of classes came together seamlessly. The only complaint I have would be the varying quality of video, several interviews seemed to be done on much lower quality film than others which created a unique flavor for many parts of the film, but took away from the cohesion of several arguments.
The film begins beautifully: a series of short clips from various people interviewed in the film, relating key points that will be made, using provocative statements to get the audience receptive and engaged. These clips serve as a hook, investing the audience in the film. It could not have been better done, with taste and style, representing the creative highlight of the film. The film then progresses into the filmmaker’s story, how she was inspired, and the initial interviews that begin to reveal the many issues underneath the surface of our educational institutions. The film then hits the apex of its focus, where in a passing comment a student utters the ultimate thesis of the film, that all of school and all the stress is merely “a race to nowhere”.
But then the major flaw of the film is quickly revealed when this statement, this statement is dropped and not expanded upon. The film flows to another issue. As the viewers watched, they were shown various issues such as whether boys struggle with coping with failure or the crippling standards of No Child Left Behind. But no issue was fully explored. In a stroke of irony, a film discussing how schools teach too broadly but not deep enough itself fails to provide any depth on the issue. Some of the most compelling and controversial pieces (such as doctors being taught to the test with specific criteria and answers and thus being less able to innovate and work around problems they have not yet been faced with) are merely mentioned for a period of maybe two minutes, and then never brought up again.
The two parts of the film that are never dropped and remain core arguments are homework and mental health. The filmmakers believe that homework is being assigned too much, and that the additional work causes stress which has detrimental effects on the student populace. This remains the strongest argument of the whole film, managing to remain solid despite several statements that incite doubt that all school can be taught in just school hours, that parents should discuss abolishing AP’s at their school, and that an new AP teacher cutting homework raised pass when the possibility that the teacher was merely better was never considered. But the strength of these arguments is weakened by the huge amounts of partially developed” stances which were insufficiently supported. Had the film spent five minutes explaining it’s various solutions and data to support (maybe even present opposing arguments if there is time) then the film would have halted doubt in its viewer’s minds.
At the start of the film, Vicki Abeles commented that they needed to start the film as it was 85 minutes and in her words “very long”. The truth is that the film was not long enough. The film need to be about half an hour longer, just to expand and interconnect the arguments.
A final note, this is a film for parents. Though it has suggestions for students, parents, teachers, and administrators, the arguments are often based on pathos, appealing to the emotions of parents worrying about their children. Students who watch the film most likely will not be moved, simply because nothing new is presented to them; this is the world they live in, and they understand it to a level that not even a documentary can fully convey. As much as the film wishes to be branching out to a diverse audience, the line into the PAC remains mainly middle-aged mothers.
Grade: Read the review, I wouldn’t want to cause the filmmaker any stress.
The Anna Luke Perspective:
The movie “Race To Nowhere” discusses the way the curriculum is set up in schools today. The movie broke down the educational process from the student board, to teachers, to parents and family life then to the actual students themselves. The general message was that schools are pushing kids too hard academically, and that they are teaching kids only to perform well on tests and not to actually learn. It also described the sources of the stress students are feeling: pressure from their parents, coaches for sports, and their teachers at school.
I appreciate the fact that the makers of the film want to change the goal of school so that kids actually learn—as of now, many students are only retaining information for tests, not to actually process the information. The filmmakers are encouraging parents to talk to their kids about their schedules, so that the kids have a better idea of what they can handle, as well as an idea of what will help them be successful. Another one of their ideas: having less homework will help students’ stress levels.
The only thing I did not like about the film was that it gives the impression that with these changes, teenagers’ stress will decrease dramatically. I felt relieved after seeing the film because maybe with some of the recommended changes, students’ schedules would become more manageable. But after thinking about it more I realized that these changes will happen slowly and it will be a long process. The film is a first step to the changes that need to be made for the future generations of students, so that they can become as successful as possible.
The Lindsey Sepulveda Perspective:
The Race to Nowhere, a documentary film that examines the pressures put on youth, was shown at the Menlo-Atherton PAC last Tuesday. The movie tells the story of young students who have been pushed passed their breaking point and the challenges that face educators and parents because of the competitive atmosphere. Three members of our staff give their feedback:
If I hadn’t received a free ticket to Race to Nowhere by Vicki Abeles, I probably would have never watched it. The movie has many respectable themes and ideas, but it is directed to people who have to deal with over-stressed and hormonal teenagers, specifically parents, educators and government officials. I felt like I wasted an hour and a half of time that could have been dedicated towards homework.
This movie focuses on the stress put on students by school, extracurricular activities, and colleges, but the movie completely ignores other stresses, like the effects of the economic crisis on students who have to work to provide for their family while staying in school. Also it fails to acknowledge the stress on students who are in relationships in general, whether it’s between the teenager and their family, friends, boyfriends, or girlfriends. And most importantly the movie didn’t mention one of the biggest problem among all teens, peer pressure, which can be just as stressful as staying up to do some English project that is due no later than eight o’clock in the morning.
Like many people, I enjoy relating to movies and often visualize myself in the film, but rarely am I able accomplish that. There wasn’t much racial diversity or a variety of personalities either. It seemed as if all the students were exactly the same. They all had the same mindset and the same issues. I felt like it was too repetitive. I got the message very quickly, so I didn’t need to hear it over and over again.
Vicki Abeles created the documentary, Race to Nowhere, to inform the nation of the stress that is put on students through school, after watching her kids suffer from the difficulty of school. She gathered several students throughout the nation to tell their story and how they’re dealing with school and life now. Abele also promotes different solution on how this stress epidemic can be dealt with by changing the way education is structured. She offers students, parents, teachers, and other government officials different advice on how they each can tackle the big bad wolf known as the American school system.
Although Abeles is very convincing that together we can change the school system because some student can’t cope with the work, it doesn’t mean the entire nation should conform to their needs. I think the people who do like our school system should stick to what they believe in and not change just because 90-minute documentary told them they were wrong.
Email This Story
Print This Story
Loading ...
Leave a Reply